You Must Hear About The Elsa Impersonator Who Was Hired For A 12-Year-Old's Birthday

It’s a common lament that tweens are growing up too fast these days. Ten-year-old girls have taken over Sephora, tweens don’t want toys for Christmas anymore, and younger and younger kids are dealing with mental health issues. It feels like kids grow out of kid stuff way earlier — and just want to have adult interests.

Well, you don’t have to tell it to Chloe King, who performs as various princesses and Disney characters at birthday parties and other events. While younger kids are absolutely delighted when she stops by to read stories, offer photo ops, and lead sing-a-longs, older kids are sometimes less than thrilled — especially when she shows up as a surprise to everyone.

Her TikTok account, @Princeschloee, is a fascinating collection of videos about what it’s like to have her quirky jobs, and believe me when I tell you that she has stories to tell. Her last epic tale, in which she “surprised” a 12-year-old birthday girl who had zero interest in princesses, is so filled with thrills and chills that it has tallied five million views and thousands of comments in 48 hours.

What went down?

Welp, the 12-year-old girl’s uncle, who lives in another city, decided to buy the girl an Elsa drop-in for her birthday present, without telling either the girl or her family.

“I was like, ‘this is terrifying, but okay’,” King tells her rapt audience as she’s taking off her Elsa wig and costume. “And then he drops the scariest part... she was in sixth grade.”

“I basically saw this going one of two ways,” she went on. “I was either going to show up to the biggest Disney fan’s house, and she was going to have so much fun, and we were going to sing, and maybe we would paint nails, and it would be awesome — or it was going to be what actually happened.”

Fast-forward to the day of the party.

“When the mom came out, she did not look super happy. And I don’t blame her. She had a plan for her child’s birthday and that’s not how it went,” King continued. “I walked in and the girl looked absolutely horrified. She was surrounded by all of her friends... they looked like fully grown adults. It was pretty terrifying.”

I would not trade spots with her in that moment for anything in the world.

It gets worse. The uncle had asked her to do storytime with the crowd, so she pulls out her storytime box — and the tweens quickly reject the idea.

But this is where Chloe takes control of her destiny. She realizes she can bring in her personal makeup kit from the car and it’s tween makeover time for all! After a quick check-in and approval from mom, she starts turning this disaster around.

By the time she finished everyone’s make-up she discovered that they were all in choir together. So she then turned on her karaoke music and the girls had a nostalgic time singing Elsa favorites. Day saved!

“They were all really happy at the end of it,” she says. “I’m really glad it was a sweet group of girls and nothing went wrong, because I could definitely see it going wrong. But that was one of the scariest party experiences I’ve had in my life, next to the time I went to the wrong house and they let me in.”

King, who has been doing princess character parties (for copyright reasons, she calls Elsa the “Frozen Queen,”) for six years now, told Scary Mommy that she loves her job even though there have been some challenging moments. And she’s used to changing up the plan in real time to meet people’s individual needs.

“I’ve been [Elsa] for over 200 parties in the last five years. I find that adapting to the specific child is an absolute must,” she says. “It’s fun to explore the other sides of her. How does she talk to a 2 year old vs a 92 year old? It’s really a wonderful acting exercise and helps me grow as a performer.”

Her favorite events, though, aren’t birthday parties.

“My favorite part is getting to go to hospitals and hospice settings,” she tells Scary Mommy. “It’s so important to bring magic to all, even if it’s difficult emotionally. There’s nothing like knowing I made a child and families dream come true with a last visit from their favorite character.”

Chloe always puts a significant chunk of time between filming and posting her party stories online, so that her clients remain anonymous — the Elsa party was four or five years ago.

“A lot of people are saying, ‘Oh I would’ve loved to have her at my birthday when I was 12!,” she continues about the video’s response. “Which definitely shows how times are changing. The girl would be 15 or 16 now and I was really hoping she would find the video!”

Birthday girl, who was kind enough not to completely reject Elsa at your 12-year-old birthday party, are you reading this?

And if you’re looking to book Chloe for your next party in Texas, here’s more about all of her characters and her business, Enchanted Events.